Dutch social design lab Studio Roosegaarde will in September deliver to China a smog vacuum cleaner system that sucks in smog and turns it into small gemstones.

Studio Roosegaarde has to date produced rings, cubes and cufflinks from compressed smog particles collected from other trials of the system.

The smog-free tower (SFT) will be trialled in five cities in China that have high levels of smog pollution, namely Beijing, Baoding, Langfang, Tangshan and Cangzhou.

Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde and his team of experts developed the SFT, which uses patented ion technology to produce smog-free bubbles of clean air, thereby allowing people to breathe and experience clean air free of charge. The first pilot SFT was launched in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in September 2015.

Roosegaarde explains that, by charging the SFT with a small positive current, an electrode will send positive ions into the air. He says that these ions will attach themselves to fine dust particles. A negatively charged surface – the counterelectrode – will then draw in the positive ions together with the fine dust particles.

Roosegaarde highlights that the fine dust that would normally harm human beings is collected with the ions and stored inside the tower. “This technology manages to capture ultrafine smog particles, which regular filter systems fail to do.”

The 7-m-high SMT, which is destined for China, will be equipped with environment-friendly and patented ozone-free ion technology. Roosegaarde points out that the SFT “cleans” 30 000 m3 of air an hour without impacting negatively on the ozone, runs on green wind energy and uses no more electricity than a water boiler, which amounts to about 1  400 W of electricity.

“This project is not intended as a final solution to the world pollution problem but as a sensory experience of a clean future. “In collaboration with government, nongovernmental organisations and the clean technology industry, we seek to become part of the solution instead of the problem,” he concludes.